CommanderZel

Still, this raises an interesting question that I hadn't considered: when painting your rank bar, does it need to be in any particular spot or could you choose to paint any bar you want?

This is amazing. This is why I want to join the 501st. Excellent job, trooper

Yeah, I don't think it'll be too hard to fix. Like I said, at most we'll need a new belt and holster (which we might have needed anyway since the ANOVOS soft armor quality is still a big unknown).

I've tried to think of justifications for the hero holster with an otherwise stunt kit and the only thing I can think of is that the hero holster got approved because the four fasteners seem more sturdy than two fasteners.

No, the frown is different on hero buckets. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

Any kit is worthy of approval with enough work. No kit can be approved fresh out of the box. We knew we'd have to work with somewhat imperfect materials, and this is the first real negative we've seen to this kit. You should be able to remove the holster and replace it with a stunt holster without too much damage to the belt, and if I'm wrong about that we still only have to buy a new holster and canvas belt, both of which are very readily available here on the FISD. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

Yeah, sales tax is 8% in California, so I was obviously estimating very low. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

Holy cow! I had no idea the shipping to Canada was so expensive! I'd also neglected to include customs because that's not something I have to deal with often if at all. That's a pretty high sales tax, as well. My bad, then. I was operating under the (very American) assumption that just about everyone in the world lives in America

I'm gonna be honest when I say I don't have any idea how you arrived at that price. Shipping should only be around $30 or so and the accessories needed for approval are all included except for the boots, and the holster might need a little work. That should run you about $130 at most, with buying a whole new holster. I don't know for sure about tax, but 30% sales tax seems a little extreme to me. I would say that probably the most you could expect to pay in taxes would be around $65 at 10% taxes, which is fairly generous. That would come out to a grand total of $875, which is a good deal cheaper than your $1300 estimate. If I were you I'd check out this thread: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/11538-the-various-types-of-armor-and-where-to-find-them/to get an idea of how much an armor build should realistically cost. I think that some of the most expensive and detailed builds might run that expensive, but most don't really get that pricey as far as I know.

I think so. I've read the CRL fairly thoroughly a number of times, and the thing that's been most clear to me is that internal strapping is up to the builder as long as the parts seen on screen are accurately represented by the armor while it's being worn. That being said, what I meant by "overall construction" was the way that the armor fits together. It seems to me that particularly unique strapping methods may be more visible than more traditional methods, and may therefore impede 501st registration.

On this note, is the overall construction a requirement? As I said before, the ANOVOS kit seems to direct builders toward a torso construction method that leaves it in four distinct and separate pieces, as opposed to the traditional "clamshell" method. I'm assuming that the clamshell isn't an actual requirement, but would I be correct in assuming that it is easier to gain approval with the clamshell method based on the fact that the visible strapping in the clamshell adheres naturally to the 501st requirements, while the separate torso construction may not do so?

Awesome. Thanks! I'll try a sock with scrap plastic first and if that doesn't work I'll try to find something higher-quality.

Speaking of the separate cod/ab and butt/kidney, is that good for higher certification as well as basic certification?

Well in that case I'll keep looking at alternative systems. However, if they do include those handy little elastic strapping pieces it might be easy to use something other than velcro with those... I'm thinking we could glue snap plates to them or something for snap-appropriate pieces and use completely alternative systems for armor parts that they just won't work for. Also, in their finished Shadowtrooper assembly they had the armor in way more pieces than you normally see it... The torso was (I think) in four pieces that were completely separate rather than the clamshell assembly that most seem to use. I guess it might not matter for basic certification but my understanding was that that's visible enough to impede higher-level certification. I don't expect this kit to be perfect, and it's true that the soft armor they're providing is kind of going above and beyond what most kits come with, but... I am very worried about the aftermath of new troopers with armor falling all over the place because they used poor strapping.

Right! It just seems to me that snaps (or brackets, if you're into the whole accuracy scene) are quieter, sturdier, longer-lasting, and overall better. I don't know, of course, having never trooped, but I still wonder if we should be looking at alternatives.

I'm a little skeptical about the extensive use of velcro in the strapping system they've shown. Obviously it isn't final or else we'd have heard about it from ANOVOS, and we can really ignore their strapping system if it ends up being sub-par, but if that's the direction in which they're heading... Does anyone have experience with using that much velcro? It seems to me that putting your armor together with so much velcro is just asking for it to come undone all over the place.

Hey, this thread seems pretty old and I'm not sure that anyone will reply, but the craft iron I have didn't come with a cloth accessory of any kind. Any idea about where I can buy one or how I can improvise one? I made the mistake of using a bare craft iron on ABS a little while ago and I wasn't sure what I needed.

I've got my PC preload ready and when I get home from school you know I'll blasting rebel scum all night

That's something I hadn't considered, but it might very well be a good way to kind of cheat your way into a cheaper ANOVOS bucket kit... I'm assuming that if you only ordered the plastic parts and supplied your own misc. hardware that it'd be a fair amount cheaper than $350, but that remains to be seen.

Also nice to hear that they're working on a system for replacement parts. As this will be my first armor build, I don't want to be too worried about getting everything 100% perfect. I was a little worried that they wouldn't be offering any kind of replacement parts program, and in my experience it's always easier to talk to an independent producer about getting replacement parts than it is to talk to a representative of a company about it (though I'm not sure I'm convinced after hearing about the difficulty people are having getting their FO replacement buckets from ANOVOS).

Ah, okay. That was the only real application I could think of for the counter- counting trigger pulls. I didn't realize that you'd left the pins off (though now it's incredibly obvious). I also didn't know if the screen-used blasters kept their pins in, so I think you just inadvertently answered a different question about counters that I'd been knocking around in my head! Thanks for your help!

Sorry, I don't know if you covered it and I just missed it or something, but I read this pretty closely and I'm still confused as to why you would remove the coil assembly and the solder. What interior electrical modifications did you make (or are you planning to make)? I did see the stuff about wiring it up to batteries, but I'm very confused. Although that may just be because I have almost no experience with electrical wiring like this.

I can't always remember, but I believe that most people say that TM is the best for people who have body shapes that don't fit into such a rigid set of criteria. I think it's been discussed here earlier, but seeing as there are over 1,000 posts in this thread I don't blame you if you don't want to go through every post. If I were you I'd check out the "getting started" section and find the "various types of armor and where to find them" thread and check there. I'd post a link but I'm on mobile. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

To be perfectly honest with you, the low cost of the Anovos kit was the most attractive part of the deal. At this point we don't know a whole lot of specific details about it and there are cheaper kits from vetted vendors that we know EVERYTHING about that you might be better off with. The only attractive parts of the kit now are the fact that it comes with a completed helmet and all the soft about except for the boots. That being said, we don't know much about their soft armor and it might come out as pretty low-quality stuff. There was also some talk of having to redo the belt, but I don't know enough about that to say. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

That makes sense. Most of the big differences I've noticed are clearly to allow for greater range of motion and constant use without too much stress or damage to the armor. From my limited view, the E-11s look like ANH (but I might just be missing the greeblies from so far back). At any rate, thanks for the information! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk